Ball-bearing caster



E. J. SMITH.

- BALL BEARING CASTER.

APPLICATION FILE'D APR. 13. 1918.

1,856,566. Patented Oct. 26,1920.

' assesses.

HI do full, clear, and vention, such as will enable others skllled w inthe art to which it appertams to make carried-by thesocket for ti e:

fntwm a. smrn, or rioivmivnw roan.

- i BALL-BEARING (2mm.

Specification of Ijetters :Eatent.

' srr' I Patented w. as, ieeo.

Application filed A ril 13, 1918. Serial no. 228,440.

. To all whom it may concern: v Be it known that I, ELWIN $MrrI-r, ac1t1- zen of the United States, resldlng at Rome,

in the county of Oneida and State of New York, have invented certain newand useful Improvements in Ball-Bearing Casters and hereby declare thefollowing to \be a exact description of the inand use the same. g

This invention relates to casters and the primary object'of theinvention is to pro-' vide an improved caster having a socket formed inthe lower portion thereof,whi ch receives an enlarged hall-bearing ball/so that the same can roll in all directions, thus eliminating the usualinconveniences ass0 ciated with the ordinary casters.

vide an improved caster having; a socket which is adapted to rotatablyreceive an enlarged supporting ball,- said socket being provided with aplurality ofball-bear ngs which receive the supporting ball, so as tofacilitate the movement of the same. y

K further object of this invention is to provide an improved casterliaving'a socket therein arranged to receive a supporting ball, thesocket having enlarged bearing balls in a the upper portion thereof forsupporting .theupper portion of thelball, and having relatively. smallbearings positioned around the outer edge of the socket for receivingthe side thrusts of the ball, andretaining means and bearings in place.v

--A still further ob'ect of the inventionis to provide an improvedball-bearing caster,

of the above character, which is durable and.

efiicient in use, one that is simple and easy to manufacture, and onethat can be placed. upon the'market at a reasonablecost.

With these and other objects in viewthe arrangement and formationofparts, as will be hereinafter more specifically described,

claimed and illustrated in the accompanying drawings forming a partvthereof in which: Figure 'l is a side elevation. of the im'- provedcaster,

Fig. 2'

,Another object of the invention is to prosecuring the vQ ballinventionconsists in'the novel construction,

- a vertical section taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1, r I V Fig. 3' is'a transverse section taken on the aline33 ofFig.2,and

' outer surface of the socket.

Fig. 4 is aplan view'of the loal'l-bearing' retainers.

- Referring tothe drawings in detail,

wherein similar reference numerals designate corresponding parts'throughout'the several views, the numeral 1 generally indicates theimproved ball-bearing casterhave ing a shank 2 which is' adapted to besecured by any suitable means to the furniture leg (not shown). Thelower end of the shank is provided with an enlarged head 3 in which isformed a socket i for receiving the supporting ball 5, which is formedof any suitable material, such as steel, glass and the like.

provided with. a curved face 6 and a ballbearing retainer 7 carryingrelatively large ball-bearings 8 is positioned in the socket,

so that the balls engage the curved wall 6. These balls receive theupward thrusts of the supporting ball 5 and facilitate rolling thereof.1

The lowerinner edge of the'socket 4 is provided with an annular groove9,forming 7 a ball-bearing race in which is fitted the annularball-bearing retaining ring '10, car-.'

form-r ibearings for\the sides thereof and these balls'facilitate therollingmovement thereof. Y Y

A suitable annular retaining ca 12' is rying the relatively small.ball-bearingsll,

whichengage the-sides of the ball '5' and v provided and consists of anann ar flat plate 13 having a downwardly extending inner flange 14;which is'curvedinwardly or transversely to'conform the curvature of}means for preventing displacement of the" sanie. The annular plate 15also "formsmeans for engaging the ball-bearings'll and I for holding thesame in position. v The retain- :ing cup' has a plurality of upwardlyextending inwardly bent spring tongues lfi which aregadapted to engagean. annular rib 17.

be formed with i The ballhearingretainersare of I ventional typeandinclude the annularmem- 'f the-supporting ball 5 and the'fiange formsthe eon; I I

7o 7 The upper slde walls of the socket 4 are 'ber U-shaped in crosssection having a plurality of ball receiving slots 18 formed therein. Iv

The ball retainers may be entirely dispensed with and the largeball-bearings may From the foregoing description it can be seen that animproved ball-bearing caster is provided in which the weight of theobject being supported is positioned at the central portion of thesocket which prevents breaking of the same and in which the supportingball, is supported by suitable ball-- bearings which eflectively hold'the same for rotation.

'In practice, I have found that the form of my invention, illustrated inthe accompanyingdrawings and referred to in the above,- description, asthe preferred embodiments,

is the most eflicient and practical; yet realizing the conditionsconcurrent with the adoption of my device w1ll necessarily vary, I

desire to emphasize the fact. that various minor changes in details ofconstruction, proportion and arrangement of parts may *be' resorted to,when required, without sacrificingany of-the'advantages of my inventionas set forth.

What I claim as new is:

A caster comprising a shank, a socket formed on one end of the shank,the upper and side walls of the socket-being connected by a curved wall,a relatively large supporting ball positioned in the socket, relativelylarge ball-bearings arranged between the curved walls of the socket andthe support ing ball, the inner edge of the socket being provided withan annular groove forming -a ball race, a plurality of relatively smallball-bearingsfitted in the annular groove, an outstanding rib formed onthe outer edge of the socket, an annular retaining plate arranged toengage the lower edge of the socket, and spring tongues formed on theplate and arranged to engage said rib for holding the plate in position,the inner portion of the plate engaging the caster ball and the smallballs and serving to hold the small balls in the race.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

" ELWIN J. SMITH.

' vWitnesses:

' FLORENCE WHITE,

MERRITT N. WiLLsoN,

